Amicitia
by Night Angel5
Summary: "His eyes were cold like steel, unfeeling, uncaring and strong. But then even steel can be softened it you know how to warm it." Draco/Hermione! Please review, I fixed the first chapter and this one readable too!!!
1. Ignis

Disclaimer: Not mine, I'm just changing them to fit my twisted imagination.  
  
A/N: This is my first ever Harry Potter fan fic so please review and give constructive advice. This is a Draco and Hermione fic. Usually I write Jess/Rory fics but I can't resist write another bad boy good girl fic. SO PLEASE REVIEW!!!! If you want me to review your's I will, just leave a name. Enjoy.  
  
~*~*~  
  
"It will return, stronger and unseen. It can not be stopped by any magic that will live in the day. Neither human nor God will survive. Two will be born, two days between. Only together they can triumph. Together they are the only source of light which will bind us with fire, to keep us from our fate."  
  
~*~*~  
  
He felt the curse impelling him back into the wall; to weak to look up Draco tried to block out the familiar ranting of his attacker. "Why do you feel the need to protect your little bitch! When I tell you to do something I expect it to be followed! As a Malfoy I thought I raised you better! " His voice quietened, he slipped his fingers under Draco's chin so he was staring straight into eyes that he knew so well to reflect his own steely grey. Like ice, chilling his insides, Lucius whispered, "I have given you my home, taught you everything, kept you alive. You will become a Death eater and stand by my side; with or with out the Dark Lord. Your mother's mistakes have not gone unpunished, you remember that or next time you dare defy my wishes, I will make sure you are without this weakness." Lucius pointed at what looked like heap of clothes bundled on the floor. "Do you understand me?"  
  
Draco nodded slightly, he could feel the blood rush up to his head, the pain was luckily numbing all his feelings, that if let loose would certainly end in more than one person dying. When he heard the footsteps slowly fade away into the long corridor, he manoeuvred himself over to the lump on the floor. Carefully he rolled it over; Nacrissa's face was smothered in blood. Using most of the remnants of strength he had, Draco magically cleaned up her wounds. In turn she did the same for him. Feeling slightly better, they sat against the wall.  
  
"Mother you can't keep letting him do this to you, one day he's going to kill you," Draco said softly stroking her hand, usually guarded emotion poured onto his face marring his unreadable features.  
  
"It's okay I deserved it. Mistakes that were made are all my fault. I brought this upon myself and I must take the consequences now," this was the explanation that she always gave. Always in the same tone. Draco knew that there was no point to argue, as Narcrissa would never say what mistakes that she made. When he asked, she said for his own protection, he should not know.  
  
Draco helped his mother to her feet; she kissed him good night and told him not to worry. Achingly him made his way up to his bedroom. Usually he would apparate but because he was so weak, it was safer to walk, even if it did take much more effort. Draco layed gingerly on the bed, his mother had cleared most of his injuries but his muscles still ached from the trials they had been put through.  
  
Tomorrow he would be safe. The next day he would be away from his father, away from the Malfoy Manor. Hogwarts started and Draco was impatient to get there, the only thing he worried about was mother. Hopefully she would be okay. She always had said that Lucius toned down after he was gone, the need to prove his dominance over the household was elevated when Draco went to school.  
  
Not that he would admit it to anyone, but Draco liked school. Learning things other than the Dark Arts for a change was welcomed. This year would be even better since he was made the Slytherin prefect. When he had received his letter, Draco had been happy, finally here was something that his father could be proud of. Yet again was he crushed when his father dismissed it and said that if he hadn't of got it, he would have suffered immiscibly. Draco had resigned himself to the fact that nothing he did could ever please his father, nor impress him. Hell even if he fought Voldermort himself and defeated him, Lucius would probably reprimand him and ask why he couldn't have finished him off faster.  
  
Without taking his clothes off, Draco slipped underneath the covers and took out a vial of cloudy blue liquid. Unbesknowest to Professor Snape, Draco had stole the supplies out of his cupboard in fourth year when the nightmares of people being raped, tortured and killed, haunted his sleep. These were the memories of the Death eater meetings that Lucius had forced him to go to. It was his father's dream to have Draco become one of them. Draco on the other hand was having second thoughts. His mind wasn't as easily corrupted as it was in his first year. Neither the less, fifteen years of knowledge and teachings were still imbedded in his brain. Even though he hated his father, he had a strange thirst to prove himself to him, no matter how much his conscious told him that he could never match his father's standards.  
  
Quickly he swallowed the Dreamless sleep potion and lay back down. Drowsiness came over him and the last thing he thought about was the comforting, emerald green curtains on his Hogwart's bed.  
  
~*~*~  
  
'School starts tomorrow.' Hermione smiled at the thought more than usual she was happy to go back. Every year she went through the same routine; check trunk, check carry bag, check Crookshanks and then check everything again. As usual she had also read all her assigned textbooks and finished all her homework. Her O.W.L's went well, she scored top marks in almost everything, usually getting over 120% on the exams. Only in potions did she struggle slightly but Hermione put that down to Professor Snape's grudge on her getting top marks in every subject. Malfoy had beaten her in that exam much to his glee. Although she begrudgingly admitted that he was smart and had come second only to her in the other tests.  
  
After re-reading her homework she tucked it away in her bag with her ink and quill. Her eyes pasted over a piece of parchment on her desk. It was from Professor McGonagall, it announced that she was the prefect for the year. Not that it really surprised her, she was the smartest in the year, but it was nice to be reinforced.  
  
Hermione sighed when she remembered the reaction from her father. He just looked at her in anger mingled with hate. Mr Granger suffered a terrible blow when his wife was murdered in one of Voldermort's raids last year. He had never forgiven the magical community for her death and he primarily blamed his daughter. Mr Granger never really wanted Hermione to study magic in the first place. It was Mrs Granger who encouraged her to go to Hogwarts. He tried to pull her out after the murder but she had refused him, going so far as to say she would hex him if he did. From then on, Hermione stayed out of his way as much as possible; she went out walking for hours and went to the gym. She also buried herself at the library, which reminded her of the friendly atmosphere of Hogwarts.  
  
Hermione thought about last year as she got into bed. Voldermort had finally be defeated by Harry in a dangerous duel on the polar caps of Antarctica, but not before he had killed many muggles and mudbloods. This year was the time for rebuilding and for Hermione, try and get her father to forgive her; even if it wasn't her fault. Many of Voldermort's supporters had escaped the Ministry of Magic; the Malfoy's just one of the families with so much power that they managed to escape conviction.  
  
'Oh well doesn't really matter now," Hermione stared at the picture on her bedside table. It showed her mum, dad and her in France on their holiday. A tear stained her cheek as she remembered the fun they had. Slowly pushing the agonising screams of her mother's death out of her mind, she fell into a restless slumber.  
  
~*~*~  
  
To avoid her father, Hermione left early to Kings Cross by taxi. Paying the driver she gathered her luggage and casually walked through the wall to platform nine and three quarters. Finding the prefect's compartment, she put her things down and made herself comfortable. After an hour people started to trickle in. She wandered down the carriages and searched for Harry and Ron. In the last compartment she found them kicking a football (or soccer ball, depending what country you come from) around. Since Voldermort's defeat, Sirius had been cleared of wrongdoing and all his assets were given back. Harry had gone to live with him and was teaching Ron (who stayed over the summer) and Sirius muggle games. Although they all thought that Quidditch was far better, football had taken their interest as well; so much as to Sirius charmed a TV so they could watch the games.  
  
"Hermione!" Harry yelled and enveloped her in a hug, Ron did the same and they stood back to look at each other. The boys had grown up a lot over the holidays and had become much more handsome than the previous year. Quidditch and many vigorous training sessions could be seen beneath their tightish shirts. Both now towered over her and her neck started to ache slightly with the effort.  
  
"Hello you two. How was your summer?" She sat down on the chair.  
  
"It was brilliant! Living with Sirius was unbelievably amazing. I can do what I want without worrying about the Dursley's," Harry's eyes shinned and Hermione felt happy for him, he deserved a caring parent.  
  
They sat and talked for awhile, not noticing that the train had been moving for a while.  
  
"So how was your holiday Herms?" Ron asked.  
  
"It was okay," she didn't give him any further information and her eyes averted their gaze when she lied. Not that either of them picked up her discomfort as Lavender and Pavarti slipped on to Ron's and Harry's laps respectively. They had started dating after Voldermort's defeat and they were barely ever apart. Hermione realised that she wouldn't be payed attention to any more as both the boys were ogling the girls chests which had developed a lot over the summer. "Bye guys." No one answered.  
  
Slowly she walked back down to her original compartment. Quietly she slipped inside and caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Sadness swept over her as once again she remembered her mother. Before she died she had found Hermione crying in the bathroom, she had told her mother that Viktor had dumped her for a blond that had rather large 'assets'. Never before had it irked her that she wasn't as 'developed' as the other girls or that her hair never stayed where she wanted it too. Her mother always reassured her that she was beautiful; but now there was no-one to stop the bouts of depression that surface every now and then. Seeing Pavarti and Lavender didn't help either.  
  
A sneering voice pierced through her "Hoping that you could some how tame that hair of your's so people keep asking whether the pet on your head likes to be patted mudblood?" She turned around and come face to face with the boy who she had despised since her first year.  
  
"That depends Draco, are you going to unslick your hair and get a nose job so people stop asking you whether your mother conceived you with a ferret?" she replied coolly, sitting back down with her things and taking out a book. Idly she skimmed him; he too had grown a lot. His muscles were defined, but not bulging under his black shirt which contrasted strangely with his hair.  
  
"Watch it Mudblood," he said maliciously.  
  
"Oooo. Scary Draco. You know that name-calling is generally left behind in at least first year. It's especially sad that you can't think of anything else to call me; but then that might be a little taxing on your tiny brain," Hermione replied scathingly.  
  
Draco looked like he was going to slam her into a wall when the two other prefects came in with their hands full of sweets from the food trolley. They were laughing, but stopped when they noticed Hermione and Draco.  
  
"Hullo Mione, we didn't know where you went," a bright eyed girl grinned at her.  
  
"Hey Padma, so you're the Raven claw prefect," her gaze turned to the boy next to her. He looked familiar but she couldn't quite place him.  
  
He smiled at her confused expression and extended a hand, "Hello Hermione I'm Adam Dynes I tend to be over looked in our grade."  
  
"Nice to meet you," Hermione accepted his hand and immediately liked him. He was about two inches taller than her and had dark brown hair that was arranged messily. His eyes were also dark brown and were full of mischief.  
  
For the last part of the journey the three of them talked and got to know each other better. Although Hermione knew Padma's sister Pavarti quite well since she shared a bedroom with her, she didn't really know much about Padma. Hermione found that she was extremely smart and seemed to understand her very well. She also took a liking to Adam, he reminded her of the Weasly twins but more caring. While they talked, Draco sulked in the corner, reading and advanced Transfiguration book. Adam produced a newspaper and showed them the study that had been done by the Ministry, racism and basic intolerance were at all time highs after Voldermort's down fall, it seemed no one felt safe any more. Hermione thought this was stupid, it didn't really matter who you were, they should feel grateful that they were alive.  
  
Finally they had arrived at Hogwarts castle over the din they heard Hagrid's voice calling the first years. On one of the horseless carriages there was a very large P and on another there was a H, the four prefects made their way to their carriage and bundled inside. Draco and Hermione were forced to sit next to each other in the small cabin; to avoid touching they tried to sit almost on the walls until Adam volunteered to swap seats with Draco who whole-heartedly excepted.  
  
~*~*~  
  
The feast was wonderful; Harry and Ron were occupied with their girlfriends so Hermione sat with Ginny. Professor Dumbledore called for their attention when everyone had finished. "I trust you are all satisfied, if not the Weasly twins are free now to reveal their hidden knowledge, you will find them in their store in Hogsmead. Now this year at Hogwarts is a very special one. As you know Voldermort was defeated last year." A loud roar erupted; Dumbledore smiled and held up a hand, everyone fell silent. "Yes that is very good news, but many people have lost loved ones by his hand. It has also been shown that Voldermort's behaviour has encouraged different people to be ill at ease with others because of race or purity of blood. At Hogwarts we are going to implement programs to curb this trend. From now on, sixth and second years will now be taking an extra class called Human Studies. All other years will benefit from activities that our prefects will be organising. Second and sixth years, you will have a year meeting tomorrow to further discuss this class. It is also at the request of the Sorting Hat that we resort everyone just before the Christmas holidays. It asked politely and I felt that a change would be interesting so I agreed. All prefects and heads please stay when everyone is gone, to all other students I bid you goodnight."  
  
Finally the uproar from the school after the announcements faded and the six remaining students wandered to the head of the hall. Adam and Padma were eagly discussing the new class when Dumbledore came over. "Now if the heads will follow Professor McGonagall's to their quarters I will take the prefects." The four of them followed him up many flights of stairs and through many portraits. He stopped at two blank canvases; he turned to them, "now I need someone to pick a name from here, out of no where he pulled out the Sorting Hat. This will be your new housemate, the two houses are connected and you are to share a bathroom. As you can see the canvases are blank, your room two will be all white, it will all be for you do decorate, if you need help with charms ask Professor Flickwick. The password is for you to decide. Now who would like to determine who is rooming with who?"  
  
No one moved, Adam bit the bullet and dove his hand into the hat, "Padma," he held the piece of paper up for them to see."  
  
Hermione's heart dropped, 'shit. Now I get to stay with Malfoy for a year. Ah hell may as well pretend to like the idea.'  
  
"So Malfoy you and me then, what do you want the password to be?" she forced a smile onto her face. He stared with pure hatred back.  
  
"Well if that is all then I will be going, all your belongings are already in their you will find. Goodnight," and Dumbledore walked off leaving the four pupils in a mix of resentment, excitement and confusion.  
  
Draco and Hermione stared at their portrait, black words scrolled across the canvas, 'What would you like the password to be?' Hermione retrieved her wand, and wrote underneath the letters, 'ignus'. Immediately the door swung open and Hermione crawled inside, Draco following behind her. "Hey Granger, don't I even get a choice?" he grabbed the back of her robes.  
  
She turned round and smiled sweetly, "Draco you can choose next time okay, that's a good boy," and pulled her robes free then walked up the stairs that pointed to the rooms. She entered the one that had a curly H on the door. Inside shocked her, the whole room was white, the only colour was her belongings. To tired to analyse things now she fell into bed, the sixth year meeting was early tomorrow morning and she'd like to be awake for it.  
  
~*~*~  
  
After breakfast the sixth years followed their heads of house into a room next to the great hall. Waiting was Professor Dumbledore, "If you will all kindly take your seats, thank you. Now this new class is called Human Studies, it was invented by the Ministry of Magic, who were disturbed by a survey, that I believe was published in Daily Prophet. You will be taking this class every weekday and everyone will be assigned a partner who can not be changed and will be the same for the whole year. This partner will also be in all of your other classes you are expected to partner with them if you have the chance on an assignment or for normal class work. A series of events and tasks will be set for you on top of that. These will be organised, as you know by your prefects. How well you do with your partner will a large percentage of your grade for this class. Now, I think it is time for you to be assigned partners." Once again he brought out the Sorting Hat. "I do not know how the partners are being chosen, although your academic abilities should be around equal." Dumbledore tapped the side of the hat and said, "Amicitia."  
  
In each person's hand a silver star appeared. It felt cool but radiated warmth from the inside. Gently Hermione prised it open, inside was a gold shimmery strip of paper. Ignoring the gasps and squeals of agony and happiness from everybody around her; Hermione swept the room with her eyes to find her partner. From behind her a voice startled her.  
  
"Great, not only do I have to live with you mudblood but now I'm stuck with you in every single class."  
  
"Draco, play nice we have all year for your pathetic insults," Hermione turned to face the person she would have to enjure for a whole year. A person she had tried to avoid for the last five.  
  
~*~*~ Review!!!!!!!! Please!!!!!!! TELL ME IF I SHOULD CONTINUE~*~*~ 


	2. Talia and Jemmus

Disclaimer: I own nothing  
  
A/N: I'm sorry about the last chapter screwing up, I must have uploaded the wrong one. I changed it when I saw it but it seems to take a long time to reload a chapter. In the last chapter, their password is supposed to be ignis not ignus. It's Latin for fire. If that's wrong I'm sorry, I used a basic translator. Can people please find it in their hearts to review my story. PLEASE PLEASE! (For further pathetic begging, scroll to the end of the page) Any way, enjoy this chapter.  
  
~*~*~ Talia and Jemmus~*~*~  
  
"Attention please everyone!" Professor Dumbledore made his voice heard over the crowd. "You will find another piece of parchment in your little star. Yes, yes those bigger pieces. Now on them you will find three tasks, which will be due in two weeks. After complete these activities, you will receive another set and so on and so on. The forth task is a yearly assignment and will be due on the first day in June. All tasks will be graded and count to your total mark. If there are any problems, please ask your Professors. Now I think that you might a want to converse with your partner so I will leave you by yourselves for now. And please, if you feel the need to mortally wound someone, please think twice as our house elves find it extremely difficult to clean all the blood as it stains. Thankyou," and with that he disappeared through a portrait. The rest of the Professors also had mysteriously vanished, owing to the need of wanting to live longer than sixty.  
  
Hermione turned back to Draco, "So Snape likes you, beg him to change partners."  
  
"What; think that being with me might distract you for getting those perfect grades. I mean I know that my looks are irresistible and all but really, your staring is starting to get stalkerish," Draco drawled, covering his own viewing pleasures. 'Great what am I thinking, she is not hot. No actually she's not hot, but more an ethereal beauty. Angel like. Filled out a little more than last year. Nice legs, smooth. Whoa Draco. Stop right there and get your perfected ass out of this mess, other wise father dearest is gunna kill you.'  
  
"Well you coming mudblood?" he started to walk over to the passage that takes you to the dungeons when a large banner swung from the air.  
  
"Remember you can't change partners so don't try," Hermione read, "Great, just great." She sighed and grabbed Draco's shirt, ignoring his outraged cries Suddenly she felt a sharp pain in her wrist; Draco was twisting it around. He pushed her into a secluded corner, (not that anyone would notice them any way, they were to caught up in their own business.)  
  
"Now listen to me," he said in a dangerous whisper, "if we have to be together for this year, let me lay down the ground rules. One you never ever drag a Malfoy anywhere. Two you do as I say. Three don't touch me; ever. Got me?"  
  
Hermione was backed up against the wall and her wrist still incased in his hand. The pain was starting to build up into tears and yet she still didn't give into him. Like lightening she brought her knee up to his groin area. Draco was to slow to react and now he was the one on the ground, nursing his own injures, "Fuck! You bitch!"  
  
It's not as scary when he was on the ground nearly in tears Hermione thought. "Now Draco, let me get this straight I'm not Pansy or Crabbe or Goyle; basically I'm not any of your little tag alongs that live on this earth to serve the Malfoy name. Neither am I a first year or Neville who you can bully into doing your things for you. I want good marks and I bet that you do to. As much as I hate to admit it, we are the smartest in the year. So do the maths, if we make it through this year than I can guarantee the best damn grades Hogwarts has ever seen, understand? Oh, and don't ever touch me again or I will hex you so badly, that when you look in one of the many mirrors that you possess, all you'll see is a very bad case of leprosy and Ebola. Got me?" Not waiting for an answer, she walked back into the crowd and searched for Harry and Ron.  
  
Before she could search very far, Padma and Adam rushed over to her, "Mione!"  
  
"I take it you two got each other," she smiled at them, "this is strange, you'll never guess whom I got."  
  
Adam stared at her and then it dawned on him, "you gotta be kidding, you got Draco?"  
  
Hermione nodded grimly. Padma hugged her, "It's okay Mione, you can hide out at our place if he's to much of a conceited prick."  
  
Hermione laughed, "Thankyou very much, I'll definitely remember that."  
  
"Hey, don't I get a choice in this? What if I am secretly harbouring a vindictive grudge against Mione? Doesn't anyone care," Adam said mockingly.  
  
Padma dramatically thought for a moment, "Umm, no." They all laughed. "Hey where is Draco?"  
  
Hermione grinned, "Well I sort of injured him, so he's recuperating and or festering a dangerous feelings of hate."  
  
"What did you do to him?" Adam asked with a slow smile forming.  
  
"Err. I kneed him," her eyes flicked downwards on Adam.  
  
"What. Oh!" Padma understood and cracked up. Adam winced as if imagining the pain, "the poor sod, no one deserved that."  
  
"Hermione!" someone called out from behind her, "Mione! I want my partner changed!"  
  
"Ron! I can't change your partner, the sorting hat gave them to you so stop complaining and be nice to them!" Hermione scolded him while turning around to face the two boys who were flushed from trying to find her. "Who did you get?  
  
"Eloise Midgeon the Hufflepuff," Ron replied glumly.  
  
Hermione snorted, "Ron, really I thought you got over that in fourth year. Stop acting like a five year old," she changed her gaze to Harry who was standing rather quietly next to Ron with a rather evil grin on his face. "Who's your partner Harry?"  
  
"Nick Fares from Ravenclaw. It's pretty good, he's the new seeker on their team after Cho resigned and he's apparently smart, so I can copy his homework. Who did you get? Wait let me guess. Girl or guy?" Harry asked.  
  
Hermione could feel her stomach do the tango with her heart; when the boys found out they would not be happy, "Guy."  
  
"Do they play Quidditch?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Are they good?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Black hair?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Blond?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Please tell me they're not extremely stupid, surrounded by stupid friends," Harry begged.  
  
"What who is it?" Ron asked stupidly.  
  
"Well they have stupid friends, but no, they are fairly smart," Hermione winced at Harry's expression.  
  
"No way you can't have."  
  
"Malfoy go away you stupid git," Ron snarled. Draco suddenly stood by Hermione.  
  
"Now, now Weasel I just wanted to talk to my year long partner," Malfoy smirked at Ron's expression. Harry had already prepared himself for it so he didn't give Draco the pleasure of a reaction.  
  
"Your lying, Hermione, who really is your partner?" Ron asked.  
  
Hermione didn't know how to reply to that, she had expected an outraged response from him, but not flat out denial. Luckily for her Harry stepped in.  
  
"Ron you ass, look at her face; do you think she would have the expression that all school work had been cancelled, if she really had someone else?"  
  
Ron looked at Hermione (who was hoping for at the best, a one hour trip to the hospital wing); then at Draco who was thoroughly enjoying Ron's disbelief.  
  
"Mione, this can be fixed, I mean come one we'll go to find McGonagoll. I'm not letting you stay with this git all year," he tried to pull her away.  
  
Hermione on the other hand didn't want to go to her favourite Professor, she was smart enough to know that there was no chance of changing people; she also had a sneaking suspicion that the partners were magically bound in some way so they had to keep that person. So she stood her ground and resisted Ron's tugging, this however was in vain as she was a lot less stronger than Ron was. The result was her slipping and half falling until Draco grabbed her waist and kept her steady.  
  
"Get your hands off her Malfoy or I'll transfigure you into the rodent you are!" Harry had to grab the back of Ron's robes as he had taken out his wand and it was pointing directly at Malfoy's head.  
  
Draco on the other hand was as composed as he usually was; being taught at such a young age to show no emotion had it's apparent advantages, "Hmm. you try and do that, though I doubt you even have the power nor the knowledge to even turn a mouse into a rat."  
  
That was it, Ron dived at Draco, bring Harry with him. Draco dodged them and they all landed on Hermione who was sick of being treated like invalid who wasn't capable of looking after themselves, "Wingardium Leviosa!" Ron and Harry were floating in mid air; Ron still trying to take a swipe at Malfoy. Carefully she sat down Harry but left Ron in the air. "Ronald Weasley, I can take care of myself thankyou very much. I am quite capable of many hexes that you wouldn't have heard about."  
  
Draco snickered. Suddenly he felt him self being lifted into next to Ron. "Granger put me down now!" he yelled angrily.  
  
"Malfoy shut your ugly trap! You are a pathetic excuse for a human being. I don't care how much money you have, that gives you no right to put people down like that!"  
  
"Mudblood, I'm gunna be lenient on you now because I know that you haven't had the pleasure of living like me and you can't be as smart as a pureblood also like me, so put me down now and I won't hex you into the next dimension," Draco growled above her.  
  
To his surprise, Hermione laughed and nodded, "Okay then Malfoy," and she let the spell break. Ron and Draco slammed onto the floor she looked at Padma and Adam; "I'm going back up you coming?" They nodded and walked after her trying to contain their giggling. "See ya Harry." He waved back at her and pulled Ron to his feet.  
  
~*~*~  
  
About half way to their rooms Draco caught up with them but didn't say a word to Hermione. If he was embarrassed about being humiliated infront of the whole grade he didn't show any trace of it.  
  
"Hey are you two going to decorate your rooms and portrait?" Padma asked when they got to the entrances.  
  
"Yeah may as well, other wise we'll have no more time when classes start," Hermione replied.  
  
"Tell me when you're finished and I come over," Padma squealed excitedly.  
  
Hermione smiled, it was hard not to have caught onto to her euphoria. "Alright then, see you."  
  
Draco wrote in the password and they climbed inside, he went straight to his room without acknowledging Hermione. 'Prick. Oh well he is not worth it.' By herself in the room gave her time to study her surroundings. The room it's self was about the same size as the Gryffindor common room but instead of being decorated in scarlet, it was a royal purple with silver trimmings. To the left side, there was a deep red, fluffy rug facing an enormous fireplace. To either side of the rug, there was two couches that when you sat down you would sink and mould to your body. One was green and one was red with the prefect's initials on the sides. In the centre, there was the staircase they used to get to their rooms, it was also carpeted and had a gold banister. If you walked around the staircase, you would find a gold door with famous wizarding authors signatures etched in the grain. Hermione traced over some of the ones she recognised, William Shakespere, Ernest Hemmingway, J.R.R. Tolkien, Enid Blyton and half of the Greek and Italian poets. Inside the door however was huge library, filled with books that the other students weren't trusted to care for. Padma and Adam shared this library, but it was so large that you probably could all be in there at once and not meet.  
  
On the right side of the room there were four doors, one to the Slytherin common room, another for the Gryffindor room, one to get into the Prefect bathroom and one to get into the Padma's and Adam's room.  
  
Hermione decided to start on her room, 'it should be some fun any way' Hermione thought. To enter her room, they were given their choice of password (Ring). The room was large by any standard, to one side there was a four-post bed facing her own balcony that looked out onto the lake and Forbidden Forest. There was a fireplace and love seat to the other side and a large desk next to that. A vanity was near her bed, with a walk in closet that fitted a lot more clothes than what Hermione had ever owned in her life. All these things were white however and looked extremely odd. Hermione was trying to think up a colour scheme and deciding that she didn't really care, she decided to make everything a different colour within reason. With flicks of her wand and little charms here and there, the room was now vibrant with colour and Hermione was quite pleased with the result.  
  
Her bed was now purple and gold, deciding she like the common room so much she should put some of it in her room, the carpet and love seat were now red to remind her of her house, two of the walls were a vibrant yellow that shimmered magically and the other two were a shimmery blue. On her walls she conjured shelfs to hold her trinkets and charmed CD player. Deciding that the centre of the room was to bare, she conjured a water feature that depicted two little cupids sitting in a pond, spurting out water. The water however didn't go straight down but twirled in circles and spun around; eventually hitting the little garden below which had a pool in the center full of little fish and a river that changed directions when it felt like it.  
  
Feeling contented with her work, Hermione was going to call over Padma when she found a door in the wall that she hadn't seen before. There was one to get to her toilet but this seemed to have popped out of no where. Carefully she opened it, inside there was a note floating in the air,  
  
To only your eyes can this be seen, Unless you wish it to be viewed, By another that you deem, To be worthy of this pleasure.  
  
'Cool, I wonder what it is' Hermione cautiously ventured inside the new room. To her surprise it was a little sanctuary. At once she felt a peace and much calmer. She looked around, now she was standing in the middle of a magical forest. Trees stretched to the sun and the flowers seemed to sing to her. She sat down in a shimmery hammock that was suspended between two trees. A noise interrupted her reverie. Someone was calling her name. Padma. Quickly she found the door and closed it behind her; she didn't really want any one to know about the room yet.  
  
"Padma! I'm up here," Hermione yelled down the stairs.  
  
Within seconds Padma and Adam were in her room, eagly looking around. "Whoa this is really cool Mione! I want one of this," Adam stared enchanted by the water feature.  
  
"Mione, what's this?" Padma was goggling and the CD player. Hermione and Adam laughed, "it's called a CD player, it plays music listen," with a flick of her wand the machine turned on and played The Red Hot Chilli Peppers. "Damn, I gotta get me one of these," played with the buttons.  
  
"Padma come on, we've got to decorate our portrait," Adam chided her.  
  
"Alright," and she reluctantly left the CD player. "See ya Mione, come and visit mine later, it's not as good as yours but it's nice." Then she shut the door. 'The portrait. Oh crap this is not going to be fun. Please let Draco be in a good mood. Oh yeah, after you held him in mid air and then dented his Malfoy pride not to mention the whole, nearly destroying his pride and joy, be thankful that he hasn't killed you by now.' Slowly she went over to Draco's door and knocked. "Draco can we do the portrait now? Please?"  
  
For a moment nothing happened and then he came out of his room with out a shirt on and his wet hair was strung over his face, "Fine, do you have any idea what you want on it?"  
  
Hermione was struck by the change in his attitude, he was actually asking what she wanted, "Umm no not really."  
  
"Good because I've got a really good idea," and shoved passed her. 'Well it was good while it lasted' Hermione sighed inwardly and followed him down the stairs. By the time she had gotten down, he had brought the portrait inside and had layed it on the carpet near the fire. In her hand she had the tasks that they had to complete, "Draco while we do this, I think we should start on this homework."  
  
He nodded and nelt by the painting, "Well read them out or is that to hard?"  
  
Hermione rolled her eyes and sat at the other side of the painting, "Okay so we have to complete this survey on each other that'll be easy, do a two roll of parchment assignment on the mannerisms, habits and basic behaviour of your partner that's not hard, you don't show any emotion what so ever, oh crap and we have to. in some way, prove that we trust each other." Draco looked up at that, "Well you can just fall and I'll catch you. Simple."  
  
"Uh no see it must be an original idea and that is the oldest trick in the therapists book. Charms have been put in place to show that this has happened. Ahh well we have a whole two weeks to trust each other. Great, how do you trust someone that's called you names for the last five years? Any way the forth task is to discover how the sorting hat placed in partners. Malfoy what are you doing?" Hermione stopped suddenly when she saw him drawing what looked like a lot of squiggles and lines.  
  
"Granger shut up will you and get your damn wand out and help me here," he snapped irritably.  
  
She complied took her wand out, she recognised what he was doing and was surprised because it was an extremely complicated charm. Hermione pointed her wand at the canvas and a bright purple light shot from her wand to join the black squiggles. Slowly they melded and formed shapes; Hermione stared, entranced at what was happening. Draco too, looked eager to see what was going to happen. Suddenly a bright light flashed which blinded the two for a moment, when they looked back, an intertwined gold Phoenix and gold Dragon on a royal red background stared back at them.  
  
"Hello my dears, I assume that you two were the ones that conjured us," the Phoenix asked in a motherly tone. They nodded back at her, "I'm Talia."  
  
"And I am Jemmus," the dragon bowed to them. "I assume your password is still ignis."  
  
They nodded again, "I'm Hermione and this is Draco," she pointed to him.  
  
"Well I guess we should get to guarding your door then shan't we," Talia laughed.  
  
Draco came out of his stupor and lifted the portrait back onto his hangings. When he came back he sat on his couch, opposite to Hermione, "your middle name doesn't happen to be Phoenix does it?"  
  
She nodded, "I think my mom was still affected from the drugs," she studied him, he looked nicer now, not so scary. He actually reminded her of someone; "You look like your mom."  
  
Draco looked back up at her, "Huh?"  
  
"Well I mean I always thought you looked like your dad, but that's just the hair and your eyes," she said, slightly flustered.  
  
Draco looked slightly stunned, "thanks, I guess." He then seemed to realise who he was talking to, "not that it really matters coming from a filthy mudblood like you." He sneered and went back up the stairs.  
  
'And I have a full year of this,' Hermione thought sardonically.  
  
~*~*~  
  
The next day Hermione and Harry were walking to History of Magic as they had the first class together. Ron it seems was mad at Hermione for the incident the day before; he luckily had Herbology first any way so Harry was glad that he didn't have to sit through a class of uncomfortable silence. "Is Malfoy giving you grief?" he asked Hermione.  
  
She scrunched up her nose; "well he's got these really weird mood swings. Like one minute he's cold and you can't tell what he's thinking and then for about two minutes he can be really nice, then he realises what he's doing and then he becomes snarky again. It's very confusing."  
  
Harry laughed, "just remember if he lays another foot wrong I have learned some great jinxes and hexes from the twins and Sirius."  
  
Hermione narrowed her eyes, but smiled and remembered the images of Draco covered in hex marks from forth year.  
  
When they got into the classroom Professor Binns told them to sit next to their partners so Hermione wandered up to the back corner where Draco was sitting. Never before had she been so far from the teacher before, it was quite unnerving.  
  
"Relax Granger, Binns can still see your bushy head if you want to answer a question," the slow drawl matched his posture; he had his chair pushed back and his feet on the desk.  
  
"Please not this early in the morning Draco," Hermione shoved his feet from the table and placed her things down.  
  
"Now everyone, this year among the curriculum you will be learning for your exams in seventh year, you with your partners will be undertaking an assignment which will require you to research a mythological or legendary race that has walked this earth, you may choose how to present your information. This will make up fifty percent of your overall grade. It will be due on the first of May," Professor Binns ignored the cries of agony from the class and started on his lecture for the day; the war between the sphinx and manticore.  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Malfoy we meet in our library at eight," Hermione told him after the class was over and walked away before he could protest. She had found he was much easy to deal with if he wasn't talking.  
  
Hermione got to their library at quarter to eight to try and beat Malfoy there, to her surprise he was sitting at one of the mahogany tables reading a book again on transfiguration. He looked up, "beat you."  
  
She just ignored him and sat down, "So what are we going to research? It can't be what everyone else is doing either, I want good marks for this."  
  
He stared, "well that means we can't do most of the ones I thought of. Jeez Granger you think of one that some ones not doing."  
  
She grinned and ran down a row of books, she was going to fast however and tripped.  
  
"Clumsy mudblood, can't even stand on your own two feet properly, idiot," Draco waltsed down to her.  
  
"Shut up Malfoy, any where this is where the elf books are," she brushed herself off and gave a few books to him.  
  
"Elves? I am not researching singing and dancing nancys that sit and preen all day."  
  
"What do you know? Sounds exactly like you Malfoy. Now do you have a better idea," Hermione stopped to glower at him.  
  
Draco mumbled something incoherent and grabbed some of the other books. They worked in silence for three hours until Hermione decided to go to bed. She said good night to Draco who didn't reply and then when up stairs. She slipped under the covers and was asleep in an instant.  
  
Her sleep wasn't peaceful though; her dreams were haunted with nightmarish images. She was walking through a deep wood; she heard a noise so she hid in the thick foliage. In a circular clearing three snakes slithered together and intertwined. They began to grow and shoot upwards they began to change, but what, Hermione never knew because she suddenly woke up in a cold sweat.  
  
"It was just a dream. Just a dream." And she went back into a peaceful slumber.  
  
~*~*~ I'm begging you people here!!! Please review!!! I only got six at the time I wrote this message, it's kind of off putting if you don't know if people like your story or not. PLEASE just a one-word review, like good or bad. Please pretty pretty please!!!~*~*~ 


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